SCIENTIFIC CLIPPINGS.

Inangahua Times, Volume IV, Issue 40, 11 July 1877, Page 2

SCIENTIFIC CLIPPINGS.

The owners ot the Great Eastern are, , it is said, considering the propriety of ■ converting that magnificent vessel into a 1 huge refrigerating chamber for the con- > veyance of American meat. A recent examination has disclosed the fact that, like 1 the Great Britain— another of Brunei's ships— the hull is in as good condition as when first built, and the directors consider it would be wise to raise sufficient money to put new and improved engines and boilers into the vessel. They have been empowered to prepare a rough estimate of the cost of the new machinery ; ; and in view of the fact that the vessel can even now steam as fast as any of the Atlantic liners, the trade in meat, which is being developed not only with the United States, but also with Brazil, promises to open a wide field of usefulness — a trade in which the great vessel need never carry over half a load. ? The most terrible invention for warfare ' that has ever been devised — if we may trust the reports of our English contemporaries—has recently been submitted to the Admiralty by a clergyman, the !Rev. U. M. Mamus. The Whitehead Pish torpedo has already proved its capability 1 of travelling beneath the surface of the sea at the rate of twenty miles per hour ; but "the rocket float," as the new machine is called, weighs fifty tons, and is propelled on the surface at the rate of 275 miles per hour for the distance of four miles. The apparatus is a timber or iron vessol, the bottom of which is a series of incline planes. In the head is the explosive, and enough gun-cotton can be carried to blow up the largest iron»clads in existence, while the rocket, by the combustion of which the craft is impelled, is laid along the deck. The vessel is said to be easily guided by a rudder of very thin slieet'metal. If the coming British experiments substantiate the foregoing, it would seem that armor plated ships have had their day, and that the naval vessel of the future should be of cork. Trials have been made in Rome of a solution of chloride of calcium as a substitute for water in laying dust in streets, and the results are said to have been highly satisfactory. The? dampness communicated to the* road remains for a whole week. The road renviins dimp without being muddy, presenting a hard surface, on which neither the 'wind nor the parsing of pedestrians or horses have any effect. ' The French papers describe an invention for driving horses by electricity. coachman is to have under his seat an electro-magnetic apparatus, which he works by a little handle. One wire is c irried through the rein to the bit and carried to the crupper, so that a current once set up goes the entire length of the animal along the spine. A sudden shock will, we are gravely ansured, stop the violent runaway or the most obstinate jibber. The creature, however strong and vicious, is " transformed into a sort of inoffensive horse of wood, with the feet firmly nailed to the ground.". Curiously enough the opposite effect may be produced by a succession of small shocks. Under the influence of these the veriest screw can be endowed with vigor and fire indiscribable. The Scientific American gives illustration of a novel life preserver. The upper part of it is a kind of buoy or floating chamber, in which the occupant has some freedom of motion for his head and arms. The object is to provide the ship* wrecked person with not only means of flotation, but with complete shelter. Inside the enlarged upper chamber it is proposed to place provisions and a water supply, so that the wearer can stay afloat a month, if need be, with safety and comfort. The upper portion is made of strong sailcloth, waterproofed and distended on a jointed cylindrical frame, Across the lowest spring a diapratn id placed, in which are two apertures for the legs, which are encased in waterproof pants and boots, covered with metallic rings, in order to afford protection against fishes and sharp rooks. These rings are made - to fit ono within the other when the dress' is folded, so as to enable the device to be stowed in small space. The top of the upper chamber is enclosed by a hood, in which a window is made. An air pipe is provided leving the respirator fastened over the mouth of the occupant. An annular air chamber is provided, which keeps the upper part of the apparatus well out of the water. No one who in the chill midnight air has hurled improper language and miscellaneous toilet articles at feline vocalists chanting on the fence can afford to remain in ignorance of the merits of an ingenious little device just patented in AmericaIt prevents cat concerts, simply by preventing cats from prowling on tho top of fences ; and it compels them to take refuge on the fences' of one's neighbors. Distance then lends enchantment to their howls, and the thoughtful man who has provided himself with a cat teaser "may wrap the drapery of his couch about him j

' and lie down to pleasant dreams," lulled by the distant wauls, mingled with the profanity of some ono several doors away, both reduced to soft murmurs ere they reach his ear. At a recent telephonic concert in Washingtonj it was stated by the lecturer that electric waves of sound sent through a single wire are frequently conveyed, indirectly, by other wires running parallel with it on the same poles, although entirely disconnected from it. This statement was verified in the Washington office of the Associated Press, where a number of the tunes played in Philadelphia, and conveyed electrically to Lincoln Hall in Washington were distinctly heard on the relay used in the Press office, which had no connection with the wire that was attached to the telephone. The tones thus conveyed, although not loud, were stated to be audible at a distance of several yards from the instrument. Mr Willirm Brookes has recently com« municated to the South London Photographic Society some astonishing statement — which we (Scientific American) find in both the Photographic News and the British Journal of Photographyregarding impressions which he claims to have obtained in a sensitive plate exposed in total darkness to the influence of a magnet— said impressions being analogous to those due to light. The probabilities are that the investigator has overlooked conditions in his experiments which would give another and more likely cause for his results; and certainly no one will accept the latter according to his inter* pretation, in the absence of proof of the most convincing and conclusive nature. Mr Brooks places a horseshoe magnet, about eight inches in length, poles uppermost, in a dark bos. Over the poles, and about three-eighths of an inch distant, he suspends a card blackened with Indian ink on both sides, and pierced with certain letters and geometrical figures. One eighth inch above the card he places his sensitized plate, so that the latter is thus half an inch distant from the magnet. The exposure lasts from three to fifteen minutes, after which the plate is removed and developed. Where the perforated parts of the card have not intercepted the magnetic aura, or influence, or mode of mqtion, or vibration (the reader may choose his own terms) - sometimes a negative and sometimes a*, positive imajre is developed, as if ordinary daylight hod had access to the plate. It will doubtless astonish many to find that ,i card is capable of intercepting; magnetism, and. it is currently believer! that the nnturnl force acts through al| interposed bodies — ns would-be inventors of magnetic rut»off< have discovered, to their confusion. But this is not ordinary magnetism — it is aura — or — the imponderable agent which Reichenbadi conceived nnrl supposed to omnnate from most substances, and to nffeet people, as well as sensitive plates. Mr Brooks wisely offers no opinion on the matter ; but not content with remarkable statements already made, he adds that upon plate appeared, a portion of a word, which was not in perforated letter 3on his card screen. After examining the latter with great care, he discovered that the word was painted on the card, but was illegible except when the card was held at an angle, and, then only very faintly, being thickly covered with Indian ink, ' This spoils a good story by making it too strong. If the card intercepted the magnetic aura so that the same could, only act through the perforators in the first case, how could the same influence, acting on another part of the card at the same time, go through that card where the printed letters were impressed ? And why did it not reproduce all the printing on the card instead of selecting a portion of a word?, There is a mysterious discrepancy about it all, which makes us think that Mr Brooks is a " medium."